The moral of the story is....

To call my husband’s car an economy vehicle is an understatement. It gives a new meaning to the phrase “no frills”. But it does have cup holders. This is something I discovered by mistake.

When we purchased the car in 2004, we really weren’t looking for anything special…Our requirements were few; it had to run and it had to be relatively inexpensive. (Who am I kidding? It had to be cheap!) The idea was just to have something for him to drive to work and back. Right away, we found a car that fit the bill exactly; it was a nice enough car, but nothing terribly special. It wasn’t until we got it home that we realized it didn’t even have any cup holders. We both shrugged it off, “Oh well. You can’t have everything.” We were still pleased with our find.

For Father’s Day that year, my daughters and I gave Dan a cup holder accessory that I found in an auto parts store. It held two cups and had a flange on the bottom that was meant to be stuck down between the seat cushions to hold it in place. The only problem was that the car did not have any “between the seat cushions.” It had two seats in the front with the gear shift in between. With some creative engineering and duct tape, we made it work. It stayed this way for months.

I often drive this car when I go to my soccer games and I am in the habit of taking off my earrings, rings, or watch and stashing them in the change compartment when I go to play. One night I reached down to pull out the tray, and I felt it slide out much further than it ever had before. For a split second, I thought I had yanked it right out and broken it. With trepidation, I looked down, and wasn’t I surprised to see a collapsible dual cup holder in my hand?! I had accidentally reached down just a bit further than normal and discovered the cleverly hidden treasure. Happy accident!

The moral of the story is, read your automobile’s owner’s manual; your car is probably cooler than you think it is.

Now, I already think the Routan is pretty cool, but I know it still has many secrets to share. It is undoubtedly even cooler than I already think it is; time to dig out that owner’s manual!

So far, I’ve been playing along with discovering fun features by mistake or by trial and error. (Just last week I discovered that there are volume and tuner controls for the radio on the backside of the steering wheel so the driver can adjust the volume or change the station without ever taking her hands off the wheel.) However, as we are preparing for our first big road trip with the Routan, I think it’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty and do a little research. The girls have already found the retractable sun screens for the rear windows (cleverly hidden in the sill trim panels), and they have carefully selected which stuffed animals and video games they will take on the trip, so as far as they are concerned we are ready to go! If only it were that simple.

Believe it or not, we have not yet used the video entertainment system or the navigation system in the vehicle. I have poked around at the navigation system a bit, but I don’t really have any idea what I am doing. Same goes for the satellite radio. (However, I know Dan has got the satellite radio under control, because there sure seem to be plenty of presets that I know I did not select. NHL radio, anyone? It’s not even hockey season!) Being the primary driver of this vehicle, I have found that it is not advisable to try to figure this stuff out while driving (somewhere my mother is ardently nodding her head), so my mission for tomorrow is to pull out the owner’s manual and bone up on all the fun stuff we will try out on our trip. I will need to be well-versed in the operation of the video system, wireless headsets, front and rear a/c controls, radio, navigation system and mini-trip computer. As anyone who has travelled eight hours in a car with children can tell you, when I am not driving I will be busy playing stewardess. In addition to changing DVD’s, passing out snacks, acting as the “20 Questions” moderator, and climbing over the cooler to retrieve dropped crayons, I will be called upon to be complete systems administrator and I don’t want to fall short of my crowd’s high expectations. We’ll see how it all works out!

See you on the road!

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A quick anecdote:
We took the kids to the pool on Saturday, and they each brought along a friend. There was a lot of chatter in the back of the Routan as the girls excitedly showed off their favorite features to their friends. Top of the list, of course, were the flip-down overhead video screens with remote control, but even the storage bins and cup holders seemed to impress. I overheard one of the friends exclaim, “The only thing that would make this car even better would be if it had a built-in popcorn machine and licorice stand!” I chuckled to myself at that.

I’m not sure that I would be entirely surprised to find that it were true – riding in the Routan does conjure some similarities to being a kid in a candy store. I guess I’ll have to consult the owner’s manual on that popcorn machine and let you know what I find out!